Farewell to Summer

School has started, the mountain leaves are turning.  Football is in full swing.  Somehow, fall has crept in and stolen the last days of summer.  This realization always brings with it mixed emotions for me.  I LOVE fall, with it's energy, beautiful weather, holidays, sweaters, and all other aspects of the season, but at the same time, I miss the beautiful, carefree days of summer.  I am especially nostalgic at the close of this summer, because this was the last summer Chase was a student.  After this year, summer will no longer mark a break from school, a chance to do something different for a few months. A big chapter in our life will be over.
In tribute to this summer, I wanted to blog a "Favorite Memories of Summer" post.  So here it goes:
(P.s., this is not all-inclusive, nor are they ranked in order of importance.  These are posted as they come to my mind.)

1. Our weekly courtyard barbecues.  As many of you may know, we live in the married student housing up at the University of Utah.  We live in a court (three buildings facing each other with a small playground/grass area in the middle).  Every Tuesday this summer, we got together as a court to barbecue and socialize.  We made so many wonderful friends through this activity, and lots of fun memories.

Here is Mckay playing with his friends Titus and Charlotte during one of our bbq's.

2. Going 4-wheeling and ATV-ing in the Uintahs.  The best way I know of to cool down in the hot days of summer.

3. Family vacations!  There were many vacations with both sides of our families that we just loved.  My favorites were probably when we went to California with the Englands, visited Manassa, and went to Kamas with the Sainsbury's.

 Cole and I on the teacups at Disneyland!

Grandma England, Talia, Logan, and Avenlea enjoying Mirror Lake in the Uintahs near Kamas.

4. Swimming

5. Riding the Choo-Choo train while in Manassa for the Anderson family reunion.  This may have been the single most wonderful day of Mckay's life!

6. Going to the Zoo.  

7. Visiting the Thanksgiving Gardens in August.

8. Taking family portraits by the pool . . . and what followed after:)

9.  And finally, spending the first summer in THREE years not pregnant and not in baby-recovery mode!  Yea!  We had a wonderful summer, and are now ready to love the fall.

8.